A significant degree of grocery shopping occurs in large supermarkets. These supermarkets frequently are primarily self-service supermarkets in which the customer uses a grocery cart made available at the store to collect groceries for presentation at a checkout counter. The customer then typically bags their own groceries and places the groceries in the grocery cart for transport to their vehicle located outside the store. After the customer unloads the groceries from their cart into their vehicle, the grocery cart is returned by the customer to one of several corrals located in the store parking lot. Periodically, an employee of the store will gather grocery carts from the corrals located in the parking lot and return the grocery carts to a location inside the store for use by customers entering the store.
The grocery carts are usually made so that the carts can be temporarily joined together by pushing the front end of a first grocery cart into the rear end of a second grocery cart. The rear end of the second grocery cart collapses in a manner allowing the front end of the first grocery cart to mate with the interior of the basket portion of the second grocery cart. An unlimited number of grocery carts can be joined together in this manner, subject only to practical size and space limitations.
When returning the carts to the store, a store employee gathers the multiple grocery carts by joining the carts together using this temporary mating process until a line of carts including anywhere from five to twenty or so carts has been formed. Next, the employee typically secures a rope to the front end of a cart at the front of the line of carts. This rope extends along the line of carts to the rear of the line of carts whereupon the employee may temporarily fasten the rope to the rear cart or retain the end of the rope in the employee's hand. This rope helps to maintain the line of carts together to facilitate maneuvering the line of carts.
Once the carts are temporarily joined together, the employee maneuvers the line of carts by pushing the handle of a cart at the rear of the line of carts to advance the line of carts forward toward the store or desired location. In order to steer the line of carts, the employee must move the rear of the line of carts laterally in a direction perpendicular to the general direction in which the line of carts is being advanced. Lateral movement of the rear cart to steer the line of carts is facilitated by lifting the rear cart so that the wheels of the rear cart are off the ground.
However, due to the weight and bulk of the line of grocery carts, this maneuvering process is difficult, time consuming, and can be injurious. Store employees can frequently be seen using their whole bodies to jerk a line of grocery carts into a desired orientation. The situation is aggravated by adverse weather conditions such as snow or ice on the parking lot surface over which the carts must be moved. The ice or snow can result in the store employee slipping while attempting to move the heavy line of carts as well as the snow or ice forming an obstruction to pushing the line of carts forward in the desired direction, or to moving the rear of the line of carts laterally to steer the line of carts.
Injuries associated with moving lines of grocery carts in these scenarios can include wrist injuries, strained back muscles, as well as injuries associated with slipping and falling. These injuries can result in worker compensation claims as well as other claims against the store resulting from those injuries.
Examples of attempts to address this problem include: (1) using a hand push pallet truck with a grocery cart mounted on the truck for engaging a line of carts; and (2) using a powered vehicle on which an employee can sit to engage a line of carts. In this latter example, a second employee assists in guiding the line of carts.